Salute The Sunflower

On the upcoming 4th of July we celebrate our country’s independence. The annual commemoration comes loaded with spirited symbolism: fireworks, the Stars and Stripes, the rousing National Anthem, marching bands, bandstands draped with tri-colored bunting, citizens attired in colonial dress. The country’s majestic National Bird, the Bald Eagle, perches on signs and banners. This is […]

The Fortuneteller’s Garden

A garden is so forward-looking that it resembles sometimes a family or a business enterprise.  I’ve even heard someone liken it to a crystal ball, making it surely unique.  Seeds are literally prophetic:  tiny crystal balls.  Within 12 to 18 months, you’ll have exactly what was foretold.  This makes gardeners a strong surviving force—we call […]

Peaceable Kingdom, Part 2 of 3

MIDSUMMER MIXES We’re proposing planting varieties both of edibles and ornamentals in a relatively tight space, so that “the lambs will lie down with lions”. Create a design for these midsummer, or hot climate cultivars of vegetables, herbs, perennials and shrubs, annuals and small fruit. They’re selected for their tidiness and harmony when planted “ensemble”. […]

How I became interested in vegetables, part two.

By Lois Burpee Eight years of boarding school and college menus, and four years of stretching the dollar-a-day budget, while sharing an apartment with a sister or friend in the depression years, were a culinary vacuum, with one exception.  While at Wellesley College, I was introduced to Chinese food.  A group of students who had […]

How I became interested in vegetables, part one.

By Lois Burpee “How did you, the wife of David Burpee, become interested in vegetables?” is a question frequently asked me—as though I had become a traitor to my husband and his passion for flowers. I am expected to be a flower expert, especially of marigolds, not vegetables. “I just did” is hardly a satisfactory […]